The Color of Water

"Poverty often deprives a man of all spirit and virtue; it is hard for an empty bad to stand upright."--Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin tells of how people’s spirits are down when they are poor. The McBride family proves him wrong. James is happy, although his family is deeply in poverty, and they have very little possessions. Besides being greatly in poverty, his whole family is black, other than his mother. His whole family lives in the projects of New York City and both of his fathers have died, his biological father and step father. He, and his mother, was discriminated against by a store keeper because James had purchased sour milk, and his mother wanted to return it, and the store keeper went nuts on him for being black, and also his mother for having a black child. He keeps his head up high, although his family is in horrible poverty.